Jeremy D. Matz

United States District Court for the Central District of California, 1998

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1999

Supreme Court of the United States, 2013

FORMER POSITIONS

Assistant United States Attorney, Major Frauds Section, Los Angeles

Law Clerk, Honorable George H. King of the U.S. District Court, Los Angeles

Principal

Mr. Matz is a trial lawyer whose practice focuses on complex civil litigation of all kinds, white collar criminal defense, and internal investigations of corporations and other entities. Mr. Matz is highly experienced in all phases of litigation, from the earliest stages of civil and criminal investigations, through the filing of complaints and indictments, pre-trial motion practice, trials, and appeals, including to the Supreme Court of the United States. He represents individuals and companies.

Before joining Bird Marella, Mr. Matz served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles for thirteen years. At the United States Attorney’s Office, he prosecuted nearly every kind of federal criminal case, including white collar offenses, money laundering, corruption, violent crime, and cybercrime. For more than eleven years, he specialized in prosecuting sophisticated economic crimes, including securities and corporate fraud, mortgage fraud, health care fraud, tax evasion, bank fraud, and investor fraud. As the lead trial and appellate attorney, he won convictions in more than ten jury trials and briefed and argued multiple cases in the Court of Appeals, resulting in favorable published appellate decisions. Mr. Matz garnered praise from fellow prosecutors as “one of the most meticulous attorneys to work in the office”, “a first-rate lawyer with excellent judgment”, and a “very strategic and very thorough attorney on every case.” He served as the Securities Fraud Coordinator, supervised new prosecutors, and won awards from several federal law enforcement agencies.

Mr. Matz is also a Lecturer In Law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, where he teaches evidence to second- and third-year law students. He has been acclaimed for his “exceptional knowledge of the rules of evidence” and for “bringing the real world to the classroom.”

Mr. Matz speaks fluent Portuguese and has given presentations on criminal law to judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officials in Brazil and Mozambique.

In May 2014, after less than half a day of jury trial, Mr. Matz and Bird Marella principal Gary S. Lincenberg won a total dismissal of a criminal prosecution against their client, who had been charged with violating a California mandatory reporting requirement. Mr. Matz discovered highly exculpatory evidence that completely undermined the prosecution’s case. After Mr. Matz delivered the opening statement and cross-examined the first and only prosecution witness, the Attorney General’s Office abandoned the case entirely.

In one of the largest mortgage fraud cases in California history, Mr. Matz secured the convictions of eleven defendants, including nationally prominent real estate agents. After a six-week jury trial, the Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions of a real estate agent and an appraiser on fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy charges. United States v. Grasso, 724 F.3d 1077 (9th Cir. 2013); United States v. Rizk, 660 F.3d 1125 (9th Cir. 2011).

In a corporate fraud prosecution spearheaded by Mr. Matz and others, Ralphs Grocery Company — one of the largest grocery chains in the nation — pleaded guilty and paid a total of $70 million in restitution and fines for felonies committed during a labor dispute.

Mr. Matz was a key prosecutor in a covert securities fraud wiretap investigation that led to the indictments of fifteen defendants in a multi-million dollar “pump-and-dump” scheme.

Mr. Matz won a guilty plea to securities and investor fraud from the founder and CEO of a NASDAQ-listed media company with a $100 million market capitalization.

Mr. Matz and a colleague won a jury trial against a licensed medical doctor in a $1 million fraudulent Medicare billing scheme.

As the lead trial attorney, Mr. Matz won a four-week jury trial in a sophisticated bank fraud, false identity, and money laundering conspiracy. Two spouses were convicted on all counts in a scheme to defraud banks of millions of dollars and launder the money into high-end luxury homes.

In the aftermath of a $26 million international Ponzi scheme, Mr. Matz secured guilty pleas to fraud and money laundering from a defendant who defrauded hundreds of investors out of their life savings.